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Maria McNamara, from University College Cork, said: “This is the only fossil dandruff known.

“Until now we’ve had no evidence for how dinosaurs shed their skin.”

The ancient skin flakes have now given scientists major clues about how dinosaurs disposed of their skins.

Unlike modern-day reptiles which shed their outer layers of skin in vast, large sheets, dinosaurs are now thought to dispose of theirs in small flakes – dandruff.

Dinosaur dandruff: Ancient specks of skin were found on a raptor fossil (Image: GETTY•NATURE COMMUNICATIONS)

The specks of prehistoric skin were studied under an electron microscope (Image: NATURE COMMUNICATIONS)

The archaeological dig’s findings were published in the science journal Nature Communications.

This is the only fossil dandruff known

Maria McNamara, University College Cork

The paper reads: “Here we report the discovery of fossil skin, preserved with remarkable nanoscale fidelity, in three non-avian maniraptoran dinosaurs and a basal bird from the Cretaceous Jehol biota (China).

“This structure confirms that basal birds and non-avian dinosaurs shed small epidermal flakes as in modern mammals and birds, but structural differences imply that these Cretaceous taxa had lower body heat production than modern birds.”

The palaeontologists wrote the skin flakes are “dandruff-like” in nature and irregular in their shape, size and thickness.

The collected dino skin samples are the world's only (Image: NATURE COMMUNICATIONS)